The Deep Impact of the Spiritual Master

Srila Prabhupada told us of important guru realizations which occurred in his own life.  As soon as he met Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in 1922, Srila Prabhupada knew that this was his spiritual master – “Not officially, but in my heart.”  Srila Prabhupada did not move into the asrama of his guru but continued traveling throughout India, doing business as a householder.  But he would often stop and think of the wonderful Vaisnava who had entered his life by Krishna’s arrangement: “I have met such a nice saintly person.”

Years later, while reading Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura’s commentary, Srila Prabhupada was struck by the force of this statement: “Just as life-breath is essential to a living being, so the order of the guru should be the life-breath of the disciple.”  Thinking upon this deeply changed Srila Prabhupada’s life.

So every disciple should carry out the order of the spiritual master and repeatedly think of him, whenever one can.  He is the saintly person who has come and changed our life from one of doom to one of hope.  When we fall into dullness, or when passionate duties cause forgetfulness of our spiritual master, a reading of Vedic knowledge will remind us again and bring us toward absorption in Prabhupada.  “He opens my darkened eyes and fills my heart with transcendental knowledge.  He is my lord, birth after birth … The Vedic scriptures sing of his character.”